DISCOVERIES: Hands-free farming goes to heart of sustainability

‘Hands-free farming’ is a bit of a loaded term. To some it may sound like a dream come true; to others, a nightmare. In an era of chronic workforce constraints, augmented technology solutions to relieve the manual or intensive labour burden in agriculture are welcome, provided they improve (not impair) human decision-making. And of course life on the land is not just about making money, it’s about working within natural systems to grow stuff. For some farmers, the idea of losing that connection to autonomous interventions is anathema.